Argentina Will Return More than 4,000 Archaeological Artefacts to Ecuador and Peru

The announcement was made during the opening of the refurbishment of the 18 rooms of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, in a ceremony broadcasted on national television. These rooms are dedicated to Argentinean and international art of the twentieth century.

The President added: “it is an honor and a pleasure to restore the cultural wealth of countries such as Ecuador and Peru in a world where such wealth has so often been taken away”.

She continued by saying, "the world we live in is one in which great powers fight to control the cultural riches of other people. One can see in the great museums of the world pieces from Greece, Syria, Egypt, Asia and even Latin America, and which have not been returned," she added.

"Just as they should with medicinal patents (using indigenous plants), countries that hold onto cultural riches and refuse to give them back, at least should pay some kind of royalty to the countries they are from," Kirchner argued, "since they were made by cultures other than their own.” She also said that only by doing so we could be living “in a better, more just world”.

Kirchner's office did not describe the pieces that were being repatriated or from whom and when they were seized. Nor did they specify the timeframe in which they would be returned.